Wine Astray: Spirit of the Soul Wine Shop Mystery (A Rysen Morris Mystery Book 1) (2 page)

Rysen woke up the next morning and for the longest moment she couldn't remember how she had gotten here.  Where was Kevin?  Was she late for work?

Panic tightened her chest until she remembered that she was in her sister’s house, back home in Cambria.  Taking a deep breath, sighing it out again, she flopped back down on the mattress and tried not to be disappointed that Kevin wasn't tangled up next to her.  Creep.  Jerk.  Bastard.

She missed him.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, and for good measure swore at Kevin in very colorful and descriptive terms.  It made her feel better.

By the time Christina had shown her where she was to sleep last night, she’d been so tired that she hadn’t bothered to glance at the décor.  Now that the sun was shining through the curtains, she felt like she was in a whole new world.

She let her eyes drift lazily around the room.  The walls were painted a soft turquoise blue, and had a small wallpaper border of seashells wrapping around them.  The bed was a wooden frame, painted white, and she had pale blue sheets, with a comforter of seashells as well.  The carpet was of a thick quality and was the color of sand.  The little knickknacks that decorated the dresser and the desk had a coastal theme to them as well. 

She felt like she was near the ocean, even though it was about an hour’s drive away from Cambria.  Her sister knew her very well.  The ocean soothed Rysen as nothing else could.  It made her feel like she was strong and beautiful, and that nothing could take that away from her. 

She stretched like a cat, and got out of bed.  Hopefully she hadn’t kept Christina up too long last night, because she’d feel awful if her sister went to work tired because of her.

There was a small bathroom situated off the bedroom.  Taking the necessities for her morning routine out of her duffle bag she set up everything on the sink, stripped out of the panties and bra she had worn for bed, and showered quickly in the stand-up stall.  She dressed in fresh clothes and felt better about herself than she had for days.  Tying her hair back into a pony tail, she checked herself in the mirror.  In her jeans and t-shirt, freshly scrubbed and without the makeup and fancy hairdo and business attire she had always put herself into in San Francisco, she looked younger.  This was a side of herself that she hadn’t seen in years.

"Hello, me," she joked with her reflection.

Rysen went downstairs to find her sister.  When she came down to the kitchen, it was empty.  She found a note on the kitchen table from Christina, saying she had already left for work and should make herself to home.  The address and phone number of the wine store were hastily written after Christina's looping signature.  She put the note in her back pocket, then poked around the kitchen until she found everything she needed for a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. 

The clock on the wall told her it was nearly eleven.  No wonder her sister was already gone.  Rysen had nearly wasted the entire morning up in bed.  Not that she had anywhere to be today.  Well.  She did need to find a job.  Maybe even get a line on a place of her own.  Not that there was likely to be a lot of prospects for either here in town.  She might have to travel to Rhyseburg, or even Noche Valley to find anyone who was hiring.  After draining the last of the milk from her bowl she put it in the sink, then slipped on her sneakers and grabbed her purse and keys to head out to her car.  No telling how long it would take her to get her life started again, if she didn't start right now.

Main Street in Cambria was where all the shops were.  When she'd been a little girl growing up here, that meant little mom and pop stores and, of course, the half a dozen places to buy home-grown wines.  Now the street really highlighted the growth the small town had experienced.  There was a small motel now, and a couple of restaurants, and even a few big name stores that had moved in.  Odd, to see how things change.  She used to climb trees where a jewelry store now stood.  Her first kiss had happened behind a little shack right over there, where the owners of a pizza parlor were just opening up.

So many memories.

She parked her little car in front of a flower shop that still looked the same as it had all those years ago.  The Petal Place.  Old Mrs. Leary used to babysit her and Christina here when they were still very young and their father just couldn't get away from work.  In other words, a lot.  It would be nice to see her smiling face again.  Pushing the door open, listening to the tinkle of the bell overhead, Rysen walked into an overwhelming collection of beautiful scents.  She stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  This was a smell that she remembered well.  She had always loved it here. 

The store around her was arrayed with shelves of pre-made floral arrangements, as well as stuffed teddy bears and coffee mugs with funny sayings and other little things.  Refrigerated display cases held more and more flowers, artfully arranged, prices displayed for sale.  The sales counter was on the left, exactly where Rysen remembered it.  She walked up to it now, finding a young woman working with a collection of red and blue flowers in a large vase, her back turned so that Rysen could only see the honey-blonde hair tied up in a bun above the collar of a long white smock.

"Excuse me," Rysen said after waiting a few seconds to be noticed, "is Mrs. Leary here?"

It was when the woman turned around that Rysen recognized her.  An angular face, long and graceful neck, deep blue eyes.  It had been a long time, but it was hard to forget a good friend.  "Beatrice?"

"Oh wow, Rysen?  Is that you?"  Beatrice Leary, daughter of the shop's owner, had spent a lot of afternoons playing with Rysen and Christina as they were babysat in the back.  "Wow, you've changed!"

"You too," Rysen said.  They hadn't seen each other for such a long time.  She knew she would run into some people that she knew from her old life now that she was back in town.  It made things a little easier that Beatrice was a friend.  Or, had been a friend, anyway.  "So, you work in the store now?  Where's your mother?"

Beatrice's face fell into a sad smile.  "Mom died."

Open foot, Rysen thought, insert mouth.  "Oh, Beatrice, I'm so sorry.  I was coming in to see her, actually.  She made such an impact on my life.  I mean, you know, when she watched me and Christina.  As girls.  You know?"

She bit her lip to stop herself from babbling.  She just didn't know what to say.

"It's all right, Rysen," Beatrice promised.  "It was two years ago.  A heart attack.  She went quickly, and the doctor's said it was peaceful at the end.  And, yes, mom led a good life.  You and your sister made her happy.  Me too.  It gave me someone to hang out with instead of being by myself all day.  You were lucky to have your sister.  All I had was mom, and this shop.  Now the shop is mine."

"Wow.  That's pretty awesome.  Owning your own business.  That's always been a dream of mine," Rysen said, a little wistfully.  She was surprised to see how relaxed she was around Beatrice.  Like no time had passed at all, and they were the best of friends again.

"That's right, you left here to chase your dreams out in, where was it?  San Francisco?  How'd that go for you?  Are you the big, successful businesswoman we all knew you'd become?"

"Not exactly."  The words left a sour taste in her mouth, but they were the truth.  "I lost my job out there.  I'm back now with my sister for a while until I find something new."

She left out the part about her bastard ex-boyfriend.  There was no reason to unburden all of her troubles on Beatrice.  Or maybe she just wasn't ready to talk about Kevin with anyone but her sister.

"That's too bad," Beatrice said, pulling a strand of hair away from her face.  "I know you, though.  You'll find something.  You were always so focused on becoming a success.  Things will work out.  I know they will."

Rysen came around the counter and gave her old friend a big hug.  "Thanks, Beatrice.  I needed to hear that, I guess.  Can we get together soon?  Maybe have lunch this week so we can catch up?"

"That would be great."  Beatrice let go of Rysen and went back to her flower arrangements.  "I need to get back to this, anyway.  Business really picks up this time of year.  You know.  Graduations, weddings.  That sort of thing.  I do orders for most of the towns around here and it's still just me in the store.  Busy, busy."

Rysen was happy for her friend.  At the same time, she felt a pang of regret for her own life.  Why couldn't she have the same kind of success that Beatrice had found?  What had she done wrong, that Beatrice was doing right?

Maybe she just needed to admit she was a failure as an interior designer and move on to something else.  Give up her dreams.  Her dreams of owning her own business, of making it on her own…

Of love.

Realizing she was still standing and staring at Beatrice as her friend added more baby's breath to the arrangement, Rysen forced the smile back on her face and said her goodbyes with a little wave of her hand.  Beatrice said she knew Christina's cell phone number and would call tomorrow to set up a lunch date, maybe for all three of them.

Leaving the store, Rysen decided she wasn't ready to go back to her sister's empty house yet.  There was still so much of the town to see.  So many changes to take in.  She stuffed another two quarters into the parking meter and left her car where it was, locking it up out of habit from living in the city.  Here in Cambria, no one had to lock their cars up.  Or their homes.  As an experiment when she was only seven years old, Rysen had dropped a dollar bill on the sidewalk and left it there for exactly three hours.  When she came back, the bill was right where she'd left it.

In some ways, she missed living here.  Still, coming back this way, she didn't really feel like she fit in anymore.  She felt like an outsider, like someone holding a snow globe up to her face and seeing all the happy people inside and knowing she could never be a part of their lives.  Maybe she'd feel differently after living here again for a few weeks.

Hopefully, she wouldn't be here anywhere near that long.

She bit her lip again.  Maybe, she should just make up her mind about what she wanted.  Beatrice had mentioned how sure of herself Rysen had been as a child.  She needed to find her way back to the person she was back then.  Back before she'd left home.  Before she'd been fired.  Before her boyfriend had dumped her and left her out in the cold.

Rysen sighed.  Where had that little girl gone?

She walked along Main Street and looked into the shops, thinking things over, nodding and waving to a few other people who recognized her.  She really hadn't expected so many people from town to remember her.  Eventually, she came to Christina's wine shop.

It wasn't a big shop, not by city standards, but for Cambria it fit right in.  Two bay windows faced out on the street with cushy red bench seats right up against the inside of the glass where customers could sit and relax.  A red and white striped awning shaded the front door, closed even on a warm day like this.  Rysen figured that just like Beatrice's flower shop, Christina would need to keep the inside of her shop cool to protect her merchandise.  Hanging over the door was a hand painted sign, artfully done, with the name of the shop on it: Spirit of the Soul.

Rysen couldn't help but be impressed.  Her big sister's shop.  Amazing.  She reached up to give the store’s sign a little push, sending it swinging back and forth on its chain.  Nice.

Inside, she found a neat and orderly space that was welcoming at the same time.  Shelves had long-necked bottles standing in rows.  Racks held bottles at just the right angle for display, their labels facing out for all to read.  The walls around the display room had paintings depicting vineyards and smiling workers who managed to look Italian as they worked hard to collect clumps of purple grapes into their baskets.  Rysen stood admiring the paintings for a moment.  Whoever had done those had a good eye for detail and a vivid imagination.

Two tables sat in the middle of the display floor, made from oak barrels and sanded planks of wood.  The same flowers that Rysen had seen back at her sister's house flowed over the edges of the tables from decorative planters, adding a touch of beauty.  It was a nice, inviting space, and Rysen was sure her sister's shop was a big hit with the tourists.

It must be, she thought, because there were a lot of empty spaces on the shelves, and in the racks as well.  Good for Christina.  Someone in the family deserved to be a success.

After glancing over a few bottles of red and white wines, blushes, and a few others, she walked up to the counter and tapped the bell.  Its metallic peals sounded unusually loud in the quiet comfort of the store.  A sign, handpainted like the one above the front door, sat on the counter next to the bell.  "Friends Go Better With Wine."  Rysen laughed at the simple humor in the words.

“Just a minute!”  Christina's voice was muffled from the back.  Maybe downstairs?  It seemed to be echoing a little.  She waited there, leaning up against the counter, whistling a little tune.  Her sister's shop made her happy.  Christina was good for her soul, apparently.  She hadn't felt this good for weeks.

That was the truth of it.  Even before Kevin had dropped her like a hot potato there were problems.  The end was always there in sight.  Rysen had just never wanted to admit it.  Now she was on her own again.

Well, not quite.  She still had her sister.